


Fighting It

by rboudreau



Category: Big Brother RPF
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angst, Arguing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-13
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-01 08:14:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2766008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rboudreau/pseuds/rboudreau
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zach and Frankie get into an argument that results in them not talking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Friday and Saturday

**Author's Note:**

> So this is based off my own theories of current events. I don't necessarily believe any of this actually happened, so please don't take anything as factual.

"You were literally in bed with him only wearing underwear, Frankie, don't act like I'm getting mad for no reason!"

"You _are_ getting mad for no reason, Zach! Chester's just my friend. And you have no right to get all jealous when you won't even admit that we have something going on."

Zach rolled his eyes and kicked some clothes across his floor. "But, you know, by all means, you can get jealous over me being in the same room as Tyler Oakley and then turn around and be in your undies in bed with another guy. Sure. Makes plenty of sense," he said sarcastically.

Frankie groaned. "He's straight, Zach. He's not some big threat."

" _I'm_ straight." 

"Except Chester's the kind of straight where he doesn't make out with his best friend and jerk him off in the bedroom of his apartment while there's a party going on."

Zach clenched his jaw, and the few seconds of silence told Frankie that he'd hit a nerve. "Fuck you, Frankie," he spit out. He hung up the phone without waiting for Frankie's response and tossed it onto his bed across the room.

**

“Come on. Don’t think you’re going to bed. We’re going out,” Jon Erik said, throwing one of Frankie’s tank tops at him.

Frankie gave him a look. “I just got home. I have two shows tomorrow. I’m going to bed.” He threw the shirt back at Jon Erik and plopped himself down on the bed. He clicked the button on his phone, but he didn’t see any messages he cared about.

Jon Erik sighed and sat down beside Frankie. “Have you talked to him at all today?” Frankie knew he was talking about Zach and shook his head.

“I saw a few tweets of his about watching the whole season tonight, before he said he wasn’t going to because it didn’t matter. He texted me a couple times, but…”

“You didn’t answer?” Frankie gave him a look. “You’re still mad at him?”

Frankie groaned, standing up and pulling his sweater over his head. He grabbed the tank top from Jon Erik’s hands and pulled it over his head. “He went all Zach Attack on me just because of that video with Chester. He’s like a child sometimes.” He saw Jon Erik roll his eyes. “What?”

“You’re ignoring his text messages because he was jealous you were almost naked in bed with another guy, and he’s childish? Come on, Rose.”

“Chester’s straight!” Frankie exclaimed, exasperated. 

His friend stood up and put his hands on Frankie’s shoulders. “I know that. You know that. Even Zach knows that. But to him, it’s the same thing as you being with him like that.” He slapped Frankie’s face gently, giving him a comforting smile. “You can’t expect him to be chill about everything right out of the gate, love.”

Frankie snorted. “The day Zach is chill about everything is the day I start fucking women again.” He frowned and started fiddling with his Kabbalah bracelet, avoiding Jon Erik's gaze. "How long am I supposed to wait for him to come out? I...like I know it's scary, but he won't even consider it. It's killing me."

Jon Erik gave him a sympathetic look. "I can't tell you what to do here, Frankie. You know how hard it was for you to come out. He deserves to be able to come out in his own time. That being said, if it's honestly hurting you to be with him without all your fans knowing about it, then it's not good for you to stay together. You're just going to end up getting mad down the line if he still won't do it." He pulls Frankie into a hug, kissing the top of his head gently. “Finish getting dressed. Let’s go out and get your mind off things.”

**

Zach groaned as his phone buzzed beside him on the bed, the light from his screen brightening the room. He checked the screen and saw that Frankie had tweeted. He opened up the Twitter app and pulled up the tweet. 

The picture loaded, and Zach glared at the screen as he recognized that Frankie was standing in some sort of club, multicolored lights flashing behind him and red dotted lights covering his skin. He took in Frankie's black wife beater, showing off his chest and arms, and the look on his face, and swore. He locked his phone and tossed it onto the floor beside his bed. Tiger jumped in surprise from where he'd been laying beside Zach and stood up to move closer to Zach. He licked Zach's face and lay back down beside him. Zach couldn't help but to smile a little, and moved to curl into Tiger, petting his head gently. 

"Good boy," he whispered. "You always know how to make me feel better, don't you, baby?" Tiger let out a loud yawn and stretched his body out, his head coming to rest on Zach's arm. Zach rested his head on Tiger's back and sighed. "Thanks for always loving me, buddy. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me next to Peyton." 

The picture of Frankie appeared in his head every time his eyes closed. He knew he needed to sleep since he had his first livestream tomorrow night, but he just had this bubble of irritation brewing beneath his skin. Frankie hadn't answered any of his texts all day, and yet he was out clubbing with Jon Erik and probably a ton of good looking gay men that were way better for Frankie than Zach was. 

He pushed the heel of his palm into his eyes, trying to rub away the thought of Frankie with other guys. Tiger nudged Zach's hand with his nose, trying to get him to pet him again. Zach complied, scratching behind Tiger's ears with a small smile on his face.

"Who needs Frankie when I've got you? You're the only guy I need, huh?"

**

He got through the livestream on Saturday intact. He convinced himself that the reason Frankie hasn't answered his texts was because of the two shows he had today. He convinced himself it didn't bother him.

Instead, he played Sawagoo for his fans a few times, giving them a little teaser for when it eventually came out on iTunes. He heard himself rapping about how hetero was his M.O., and he wasn't really sure anymore if he was proud of himself for the quick one liner he'd written on a day of frustration, or if he was nervous that everyone would start calling him on his shit.

Either way, he thought the stream went pretty successfully. They'd managed to raise around $7,000 for the twins, and Zach was grateful he could at least do something right. Things with Frankie might be confusing, but at least he could help these little girls. That's all he cared about. 

He wasn't planning on telling anyone that he stayed awake until almost 3 in the morning to watch Frankie's new video with Chester. He wasn't planning on telling anyone how jealous he was that Chester got to spend all this time with Frankie, making all these videos with him and going out to eat with him and doing everything Zach couldn't. He wasn't planning on telling anyone how he couldn't stop the smile from peaking out on his face when Frankie would belt out the lyrics. And he definitely wasn't planning on telling anyone how that smile fell when Frankie made a jerking off gesture at the camera while singing about it being a mistake and wondering if Frankie was hinting at what they'd done in his apartment the night of his opening show, just like Frankie had thrown in his face the other day during their fight.

If he shed a couple tears after tossing his phone to the side, it was just because he was tired and was just emotional about how much money they'd raised for Samantha and Ashley. It definitely had nothing to do with Frankie, or how empty his bed felt sometimes without Frankie in it. He was just tired, and it was a lot easier to fall asleep when he could rub someone’s back. Absolutely 100% nothing to do with Frankie.


	2. Sunday and Monday

The day after his livestream, Zach managed to avoid social media for most of the day. He took Peyton out to the golf course for a while, listened to some music on Spotify, and cuddled with his dogs. He didn’t sign onto Twitter until after dinner. He started favoriting random tweets from his fans, not really reading most of them until Frankie’s name kept popping up. People were telling him to call Frankie during the next ZRL on Tuesday and to read some zankie fan fiction (which, no thanks. He’d seen fans talking about zankie stories before, and he had no desire to read about any of that).

A little before midnight, he got a tweet about moving out of Florida to New York or Los Angeles. He favorited it, even though he wasn’t really sure if he’d still be moving if he and Frankie weren’t speaking anymore. The whole point had been to work on their relationship and allow Zach to have more career opportunities. But without Frankie, Zach couldn’t see the point in moving all the way up there when he could just stay in Florida with his parents and his little brother and go back to normal.

He gave up on Twitter not long after that and tried to fall asleep. A couple hours of restless attempts later, his phone lit up with Frankie’s tweets. He was talking about some Gypsy of the Year skit that he vaguely remembered Frankie telling him about earlier the week before. He tweeted something about the skit being a surprise, and that only made Zach think of when Frankie had tweeted about a surprise last week and it ended up being him calling into Dirty Pop while Zach was cohosting. He’d been so happy to hear Frankie’s voice because he hadn’t been expecting it. Everything had been perfect. They’d talked about Africa and moving to New York and how it was fate that they met, and he’d felt like he was on cloud 9. He wasn’t really sure how that all turned around in the span of a week, but it wasn’t helping him fall asleep in the slightest.

**

Frankie nodded at Paul distractedly, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He listened to him talking about the “party” they were having tomorrow night for the Victoria Secret Fashion show and checked the text he’d just received. 

**Zach Rance**   
_What r u doin_

Frankie frowned, all his attention turning to Zach. He hated how easy it was for Zach to distract him from what he should be focusing on. He could have just ignored it like he’d been doing all weekend, but for some reason he typed out a one worded text anyway.

**Frankie Grande**   
_Busy._

“Frankie?” Frankie snapped his head up to look at Paul, who was raising his eyebrows at him.

“Yea, sorry. Just…” he rolled his eyes and shrugged. “Just Zach.”

**Zach Rance**   
_Come on Frankie. I thought we were friends. How long are you gonna keep this up?_

He clenched his jaw, squeezing the phone a little tighter in his hand. Zach thinking they were friends was exactly the problem. He decided to ignore the text and pulled up Twitter.

**@FrankieJGrande**   
_ain’t no party like a #grande party cause a #grande party don’t stop!! [dancing girls emoji][salsa dancer emoji][sassy girl emoji]_

“So are you talking to him yet?” Paul asked, fixing his hair in the mirror.

Frankie shoved his phone into his pocket and put on a fake cheerful face. “Nothing to talk about. Except this party tomorrow! I’ll be back from the theatre probably right before the fashion show starts, so you’ll have to set up without me.”

Paul shook his head, letting Frankie change the subject. He’d learned over the years to just let Frankie do whatever he was going to do.

Frankie felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and debated whether or not he actually wanted to look at it. He decided to go the masochistic route and took it out to check the message.

**Zach Rance**   
_Idk why you’re doing this Frankie. I didn’t do anything wrong. This is stupid._

**Zach Rance**   
_Ignoring me isn’t going to make you feel better. Why can’t you just talk to me? I thought we could talk about anything._

“Fuck,” he whispered. He hated this. He hated this entire situation. He hated not talking to Zach. But he hated being a secret even more, which was the only thing that gave him the strength to put his phone down on the table beside the couch and not text him back.

Paul put his arm around Frankie’s shoulders, pulling him into a hug. “I can go, if you want. So you can call him and talk.”

Frankie shook his head. “I don’t want to talk. I just…” He took a deep breath, burying his face into Paul’s shoulder. “I think I just need a break from Zach. It’s my own fault for falling for a straight guy, anyway.”

Paul rubbed his back lightly, trying to comfort him. “Honey, you and I both know he isn’t straight.”

Frankie sighed. “I don’t really know anymore. But I told myself years ago I wasn’t going to do the whole ‘pine after straight or closeted men’ thing anymore. And now look at me. Crying over someone who can’t even admit that we’re more than just best friends. I’m so pathetic.”

“You’re not pathetic.” Paul made Frankie look at him and gave him a comforting smile. “Maybe he just needs some time apart too. Maybe this will be good for both of you.”

Frankie gave a shaky laugh. “How do I keep ignoring him? It hurts to not talk to him, but it hurts when he tells me he’s straight, too. He texts me at least 3 times a day, he calls me when he knows I’m on Twitter at night. I just don’t know how long I can keep it up for.”

Paul squeezed his hand reassuringly. “You’re a Grande. You can do anything. Even ignore boys who can’t give you 100%. I like Zach. But I love you more. If you’re not happy, then it’s better to figure that out now than months or years from now when you’re in too deep and he’s still playing it straight.”

He groaned and ran a hand down his face. “I’m already in too deep. That’s the problem.” He gave Paul a sad smile. “Can we talk about the party again? I need to stop thinking about him.”

Paul smiled and nodded. “Sure thing.”

**

Zach groaned, running his hands through his hair and pushing his palms into his eyes. As if it wasn’t bad enough that he’d accidentally tweeted his first text to Frankie, but Frankie still wouldn’t even talk to him. He obviously knew Frankie had his phone on him, but instead of responding to the rest of Zach’s texts, he’d tweeted something about a party instead.

He was going crazy. He knew Frankie was doing it on purpose. He knew how to get Zach to do whatever he wanted, including get jealous that Frankie wasn’t paying attention to him. 

God, he needed to stop caring so much. If Frankie wanted to ignore him, that was on Frankie, not Zach. He thought they could talk through it, but apparently he was stuck getting the silent treatment.

He grabbed his phone again, opening up the Tinder app he hadn’t really used much since he’d been home. He was mostly swiping left on the girls he came across. None of them were what he wanted. He saw some really hot girls that he swiped right on, but it wasn’t like he was actually going to meet up with any of them. Girls who needed a dating app to get a guy weren’t his type.

The second he swiped left before even really paying attention to the girl he’d seen, he swore briefly after realizing how much of a smokebomb she was, and that he’d just been swiping left so quick on other girls that he hadn’t really been paying attention. Then he got an idea in his head, and he couldn’t shake it for the life of him. If Frankie wanted him to be jealous, he could try to make Frankie jealous too.

**@ranceypants**   
_Omg just accidentally swiped left!! No but I swore she was the one [double heart emojis]_

And then, just because he was bored with Tinder and wanted something else to do, he sent out another tweet for tomorrow night’s ZRL.

**@ranceypants**   
_Everyone send in your questionz with the hashtag #ZachChat right now. Pleaz and thank you [heart emoji]_

He responded to a couple tweets, one being that he was going to change his ringtone which was currently Shower. He always associated that song with Frankie, and if Frankie wasn’t going to talk to him, it was just a painful reminder every time his phone rang and it wasn’t him. 

“You’re so lame,” he mumbled to himself.

“Are you talking to yourself?” Zach jumped, looking to see Peyton standing in his doorway. 

Zach sighed, trying to slow his heart rate after Peyton caught him off guard. “No. What are you doing in my room?”

Peyton ignored him and sat down beside Zach on his bed. “Are you and Frankie still fighting?”

Zach groaned. “That’s none of your business. Go watch TV or something.” Peyton frowned and Zach felt bad, not liking to make him upset. “Look, don’t worry about me and Frankie, okay? We just need a break from each other for a bit.” It felt so wrong to say that, but he was starting to think maybe it was true.

His little brother looked at him for a second before seeming to accept what he’d said. “Will you make me something to eat? I won’t have time to eat dinner before we have to go to practice.”

Zach gave him a smile, ruffling his hair. “Sure. Gotta feed the champion! Need you on your A game!” Peyton giggled and tried moving away from him. 

This was good. He could forget about Frankie and focus on his little brother. It would be just like before the show.

Except as he followed Peyton out of his room, his eyes caught on the group picture of the cast sitting on his bookshelf. He looked right at Frankie’s face and felt his heart ache a little bit. 

“Zach!” Peyton called. “Come on! I’m hungry.”

He shook his head, grabbing his pink and blue “I Heart Haters” hat from his bottom shelf and putting it in front of the picture. He just needed as few reminders of Frankie as possible right now. He didn’t want to admit why it hurt just to see his face. Not when he was still telling everyone that he was straight. 

So for now, Zach was appreciating the bright smile Peyton had on his face as he entered the kitchen and listened while he rambled on about basketball practice. He had pretty much everything he needed right here. Who cares if Frankie didn’t want to talk to him? It was no big deal. Really.


	3. Monday night and Tuesday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Monday night, a little before Zach took Peyton to basketball practice, he posted an edit a fan made of him with angel wings and Ariana next to him making this face she’d made after almost getting hit with wings a Victoria Secret model had been wearing. He’d barely lasted a few hours of not talking to Frankie before he’d been practically itching with the need to talk to Frankie.

He figured it wouldn’t hurt posting an edit with Frankie’s sister in it. Frankie loved shit like that. 

His mom kept asking him what he wanted for Hanukkah, but Zach couldn’t think of anything.

“Mom, I don’t need anything. Really.”

“Zachary, I have to get you something. There isn’t _one_ thing you want?”

Zach shrugged, grabbing his mom’s keys off the hook beside the door. “I’ve got pretty much everything I want already.” He paused. “The only thing I want is to fix things with Frankie. And he’s not budging. So…” He cleared this throat. “Peyton! Let’s go. You’re gonna be late.”

**@ranceypants**  
 _My mom keeps asking me what I want for Hanukkah I say I don’t need anything I have (almost) everything I want in the world !_

His mom looked at him sympathetically. “It will work itself out. People fight. That’s how you know you care.”

Zach frowned. “I don’t like it. It feels like shit.” She smiled at him and walked over, kissing his cheek.

“Give him some time. Everything will be fine.”

He nodded and straightened up. “Tell Peyton I’ll be waiting in the car. Love you.”

**@FrankieJGrande**  
 _I love justin. #frustinforever #iBeliebe #GypsyOfTheYear @bcefa instagram.com/p/wXUlZvsigg/_

**@ranceypants**  
 _Basketball practice with the baddest 11 year olds in the game_

He was staring at Frankie’s picture on instagram when Peyton opened the car door, hopping in and putting his seatbelt on. He felt a small twinge of jealousy that it was Bieber Frankie was tweeting about instead of him. But he also missed seeing Frankie’s face, so this was better than nothing. He liked the picture and locked his phone, setting it down and starting the car. 

“Ready to kick some ass?” Peyton giggled and nodded excitedly. “Alright, let’s go!”

**

“Jesus Christ,” Frankie breathed. 

Pretty much half his mentions on Twitter were full of people tweeting him this picture of Zach he’d apparently posted on Shots. Frankie was pretty sure he had just gotten out of the shower, because he still had drops of water trailing down his chest.

He had to get onstage in a few minutes, which meant he had to try to not think about Zach looking sexy as hell right now.

It’s like he couldn’t do anything without someone reminding him of Zach’s existence. First Lauren had texted him a screenshot of an instagram post Zach had posted of Ari’s Victoria Secret scared face, then he’d gone on Snapchat and seen videos of Zach at Peyton’s basketball practice, and now everyone was flooding him with hot shirtless pictures of Zach. They were all attached with captions like “your bae is hot af,” “wow Frankie ur so lucky,” or “jesus how are either of you real? you’re perfect for each other.”

His heart ached for Zach. It was so hard to continue not talking to him when he constantly had people reminding him how much he loved Zach and how good they were together. He already knew they were soulmates. That wasn’t the problem. He just couldn’t deal with the secrets and the distance and the constant fear that Zach would call him up one day and tell him that he’d found some girl that he wants to be with and that he and Frankie would never work out. Zach didn’t understand why Frankie had this need to be out in the open with their relationship; he thought it was better to “just keep whatever we’ve got going on between us until we figure it out. The whole world doesn’t need to know every detail of our lives, Frankie.”

Frankie understood the need for privacy. But he didn’t like feeling like some dirty little secret. Sometimes it felt like Zach wasn’t coming out publicly so that he could eventually end things with him and the world would still think he was straight. No matter how many times Zach told him that wasn’t why he hadn’t come out yet, Frankie had a long history of closeted men fucking with his head and then leaving him when they’d gotten bored. It was only a matter of time before Zach just became another one to break his heart, only this time it would be worse, because Frankie had fallen completely in love with him.

**

Around 12:30 that night, Zach’s phone buzzed with a notification that Frankie had tweeted. 

**@FrankieJGrande**  
 _Excited. Extreme. Exhausted. Happy #toplesstuesday [kiss emoji] [photo]_

He felt himself freeze as he looked at the picture Frankie had attached to the tweet. It was obviously from Snapchat, and had the caption “Night night” written across it with a couple emojis. Frankie was laying in bed shirtless making a kissy face, and it cut off right at his waist.

He opened up instagram to see a different shirtless picture of Frankie making another kissy face, the picture taken at a different angle than the Snapchat one. But when he opened up Snapchat, he didn't see a new snap from Frankie, and nothing new had been added to his story since the last time he checked.

The only thought in his head was that Frankie had sent the snap to someone else; someone in New York, someone hotter and funnier than Zach, someone who was out of the closet and could be with Frankie without hiding. He wasn't sure which emotion running through him was stronger: anger that Frankie was sending shirtless pictures to other men, jealousy that they weren't being sent to him, or sadness because Frankie had moved on from him in a matter of days. 

Zach didn't remember starting to cry, but he spent the next few hours with tears pouring down his face and occasional sobs wracking his body.

**

The next day wasn't much better for Zach. He'd slept for a few hours, but his head was pounding and his eyes were burning from spending so long crying. He got up to shower and eat, and he snapped at anyone who tried talking to him. He didn't mean it, but he definitely wasn't in a good mood. 

He made a Snapchat video that was pretty much the same as one he'd made before the Murtz interview to announce the Hollywood Rejects channel. He'd started to say he was gay, and then cut himself off and said he'd be going on ZRL at 9:30.

It didn't take long for fans to start DM'ing him about the video. Someone told him that people were reacting badly because he was "making a joke" out of the coming out process and that they felt like he was mocking them. If he had been in a better mood, it probably wouldn't have irritated him as much. But he didn't need his fans thinking he thought coming out was a joke, especially with his No H8 campaign coming up, so he told whoever DM'd him to apologize for him and he deleted the video from his story. 

He hated that everyone took everything so seriously. Everything he did ended up coming back to Zankie or people accusing him of queerbaiting. Today really wasn't his day.

He tried forgetting about everything and took Peyton to his first basketball game. They were honestly _terrible_ , but Zach cheered anyway while they warmed up. Before they started, he scrolled through Instagram. He saw a bunch of people tagging him in another shirtless picture Frankie had posted several hours ago, and it was obvious that someone else had to have taken the picture for him, and he felt annoyed all over again. 

**@ranceypants**  
 _Instagram is the worst_

**

“What would you say is the most common misconception your fans have about you?"

Zach sighed. He had been planning on having fun with this question when he’d picked it, but now that everyone was all pissed at him for the Snapchat video earlier, he felt like he couldn’t even say anything.

He'd still been in such a bad mood after Peyton's game that he just didn't give a fuck about anything. He'd gotten ready for ZRL and put on these shorts covered in girls wearing bikinis because he knew it would piss people off. He didn't really care if anyone was mad. Why should he be the only one in a bad mood today?

So most of the show had been fine so far, until he got to this question. Now he was just thinking about how seriously everyone had taken it earlier and how he'd deleted it just to get them to stop freaking out.

"You know what? I would love to answer this question how I want to...people are very sensitive, um....to all the fans that don't, y'know, I don't need to say it. You guys know what I'm talking about. I don't need to go out there and keep pushing the line. You guys know what the biggest misconception is about me, and we will leave it at that."

He was still probably going to get shit for that, but there was nothing he could really do about it.

He answered some question about college, and then he got hit with the other question he had been planning to have fun with. 

"Have you ever been in love? Oh jeez, have I ever been in love?" 

He took his glasses off and tossed his hat to the side as he stalled answering the question. Before he fought with Frankie, he had been planning on teasing about being in love or having been in love. But now that they weren't really talking and after the Snapchat picture from last night, Zach wasn't really in the mood to say anything that would make fans think he and Frankie had something going on.

He started to take his white jacket off as he finally answered. "Yeahhhh, no. No. I've never been in love. I thought I was, but...I'm, I'm not. Alright, what's the next question?"

It was such bullshit. He could hear the bitterness in his own voice, and he knew the fans would too.

He moved on quickly, answering more questions. He kept catching himself doing the Rhinestone Silversmith voice and calling everyone Rose, and it was frustrating that he couldn't even stop talking like Frankie. 

He agreed to vlog the trip to Africa, but then he found himself saying that he wouldn't go if there was Ebola there. He knew it was stupid, he knew he was probably going to get people telling him he was an idiot, but he felt like he had to come up with some reason to not go if Frankie didn't want him there anymore. He still wanted to go, he wanted to be with Frankie and build a school named after Frankie's grandfather, and he wanted Frankie to talk to him again.

After he answered the last Zach Chat question, he decided to try to call Frankie. He knew everyone wanted him to call Frankie during the livestream, and he'd texted Frankie before he started the show asking him to pick up when he called.

"Right now, it is time to call someone. Now, I-I told him to answer his phone, but I...I feel like he's really busy. Now, don't hate me if he doesn't answer his phone. I'm calling him right now. I'm calling him right now. I'm calling him right now."

He showed the camera his phone so they could see Frankie's name and he put it up to his ear.

"Cause everyone's been asking me 'Call Frankieeeee! Call Frankie! Call him, call him, call him!' Alright, I will."

The phone kept ringing, and every ring gave him less and less hope that Frankie would answer. 

"He's definitely, like, busy as hell right now." He put it on speaker and knew he was just making excuses to make himself feel better for Frankie not picking up. "Answer Frankie!"

He kept his eyes on the phone screen and avoided the camera as disappointment crept over him.

"Please answer, Frankie." 

_Ring_. 

"Come on! There's people that wanna hear you speak to me, ya froot loop!" 

_Ring_. 

"Come on, _answer_ , Frankie."

" _Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system._ "

He groaned in frustration. "That's okay. He'll call me back. He'll call me back." He heard this background track playing that Josh must have pressed and he gave the computer an apologetic look. "I know, I'm sorry. I knew he wasn't gonna answer. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it, I knew it."

Zach moved on with the show and tried not to show how disappointed he was. He knew Frankie wasn't at the theater anymore, and it was killing him that he wouldn't answer his phone calls, even for the sake of their fans.

**

Frankie watched his phone screen go dark after missing Zach’s call. He knew he was doing his livestream right now, but there was absolutely no way Frankie could talk to him and pretend everything was okay between them just so the fans could see them talk.

He knew pretty much everyone thought they were fighting. He got mentions about it all the time. Some people thought they were just being quiet to protect their relationship, but the majority was under the impression that there was some big huge blowout. He didn’t want them all to be freaking out, but...he had to put himself first here. And if that meant taking a step back from Zach, then that’s what he was going to do. He would just sit here and watch the Victoria Secret Fashion Show with his sister and their friends and have a party just like before Zach stepped into his life.

That was easier said than done when Zach tried calling him again 45 minutes later. The fashion show was pretty much over, Ari had already performed, and Frankie had been tweeting like crazy the whole time. Everyone was telling him to call Zach back, but he just kept tweeting about how amazing his sister was. He hadn’t tweeted in about 15 minutes when Zach’s name flashed across his screen. Ari was sitting beside him and gave him a look.

“Just answer it.”

He shook his head. “This night’s about you. Not my boy drama.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t use me as an excuse to not talk to your boyfriend. My performance already aired. You’re avoiding him.”

“So what if I am?” He put his phone down on the couch beside him even though it was still vibrating. “Besides, he’s not my boyfriend.”

Ariana scoffed. “Bullshit. Even if you hadn’t told me he was your boyfriend at Halloween or when you texted me on your opening night or on Thanksgiving barely 2 weeks ago, you’re so fucking obvious. He’s been your boyfriend for, what, like 2 months now? And you’re upset because he won’t come out of the closet.”

Frankie set his jaw and turned back to the TV. “I’m not talking about this.”

“Because you know I’m right.”

“Okay, so I’m mad he won’t come out. You know I hate dating closeted guys.” 

She hooked their arms together and rested her head on his shoulder. “And yet you keep doing it,” she sing songed. He tried to pull away, but she held tighter. “Frankie. You love Zach. You know that, I know that, pretty much all of America knows that. And he loves you too. So I don’t know why you’re putting both of you through all this emotional torture when all you want to do is pick up that phone call.”

Frankie sighed, cuddling into his little sister’s embrace. “I hate secrets. Who even has secret relationships?”

Ariana glared at him playfully. “Me and pretty much every celebrity to ever date anyone, thank you very much. Or were you forgetting that Sean and I kept things a secret for the first few months we were together?” He didn’t say anything and she hugged him tightly, trying to comfort him. “Look, you’re my brother and my best friend, and I love you more than anything. I’m on your side no matter what. But Zach is new to all of this. He’s new to dating, he’s new to dating a guy, and he’s new to dating a celebrity. Think of where you were at 10 years ago before you’d come out. You wouldn’t have been able to just tell the entire world without basically having the biggest anxiety attack known to mankind. I know it’s frustrating for you because of guys you’ve dated in the past, but you and I both know you’ve never felt this way about any other guy.”

He groaned. “Stop being so mature, I fucking hate it.”

She giggled at him. “No you don’t. You love it. You just hate that I make sense.” She kissed the top of his head. “I love you, Frankie. I want you to be happy. And you’re obviously not happy while avoiding Zach, so just talk to him. Either you stay together and everything is fine and I can continue planning your wedding, or you put an end to things permanently and try to move on.”

Frankie frowned. “It’s the permanently part that scares me.”

Ariana grinned. “Well then I think you’ve already got your solution.” She reaches over him and grabs his now silent phone and puts it in his hands. “I’m not saying it has to be tonight, but you’re gonna have to kiss and make up soon. We don’t need him going all Zach Attack and messing things up because he thinks you don’t want him anymore.”

“What would I do without you?”

“Be eternally single.” She winked and pecked him on the cheek. “Now, you finish watching the fashion show. I have to make sure they don’t get blood on the floor while they get tatted up,” she said, nodding her head towards the makeshift tattoo setup in the kitchen. 

He did as she said and finished watching as Taylor Swift performed. 

**@FrankieJGrande**  
 _YES @taylorswift13!!!!! YES!!!!! BLACK LACE, VOICE AND FACE!!!!!! GET IT!!!! LOVE U!!!! [heart eyes][clapping][double heart]_

He tapped his fingers impatiently against the side of his phone for a few minutes before getting up and heading towards his room. Ari gave him a knowing look that he tried his best to ignore, and he closed his bedroom door behind him.

He opened up his phone log and hovered his thumb over Zach’s name before summing up the nerve and pressing it. He held the phone against his ear and listened to the ringing.

“Hello?”

Frankie sighed hearing Zach’s voice. “Hey,” he said quietly.

“Hey, what’s up?” he asked. Frankie heard a door sliding closed and he bit his lip.

“Are you still doing the show, or….?” he trailed off.

Zach shook his head. “No I just ended it as you were calling.” He paused. “Hang on.”

Frankie listened carefully and heard Jill’s muffled voice in the background.

_“No, he called back...I don’t know, Ma, I’ve only been on the phone with him for 5 seconds…okay we can talk about it tomorrow...goodnight. Love you.”_

There was shuffling for a second and then Zach’s voice was back clearly. “Hey. Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind.”

The few seconds of silence felt like forever until Zach spoke again. "So...how was the fashion show?"

Frankie's eyes caught on a picture of the two of them from his opening night sitting on his desk, and he felt his bottom lip stick out in a pout. "I miss you," he whispered.

Zach hesitated and sat down on his bed. "I miss you too. Why...what brought this on?"

He swallowed thickly, running his hand through his hair. "Zach, I've missed you this entire time. I just...this isn't easy for me, either."

"Yea, well, it sure seems like it. You've been doing a pretty fantastic job of pretending I don't even exist." 

Frankie cringed at the bitterness in Zach's words. "I deserve that."

Zach groaned. "I don't know what I did to make you shut me out, Frankie. It's like it took nothing at all for you to just cut me out of your life."

He frowned. "It's not nothing. I hate not being able to be public with you, and it seems like you don't even care. You're totally fine with never telling anyone that you're my boyfriend."

"Oh, come on, Frankie. That's bullshit. Practically my entire family and all the friends I hang out with know. Just because I don't want to tell a bunch of teenagers--"

"It's part of my life, Zach," he interrupts. "All these fans we have, they're a part of my life. And I hate not being able to talk about you unless I tack on some fake bromance phrase like you don't mean that much to me."

Zach sighed through the phone. “I don’t want to fight with you, Frankie.” He sounded exhausted, and Frankie just wanted to cuddle up with him and run his fingers through his hair until they fell asleep. “You know me. You know I’m not doing any of this to hurt you. But I’m not ready for the whole world to know. I need you to understand that.”

Frankie closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know if I can.”

Zach felt like his heart was breaking a little bit. He took a deep breath. “Goodnight, Frankie.”

“Zach, wait--”

The phone beeped in his ear, signaling that Zach had ended the call. He pulled it away from his ear and looked at the screen as it went back to the phone log page. 

Frankie put his head in his hands, trying to sort everything out in his head. His phone buzzed in his lap.

**@ranceypants**  
 _I love you_

He felt himself break down in tears. He didn’t know how long he sat there crying. All he knew was that he eventually felt his sister’s arms wrap around him and hold him while he tried to figure out what he was going to do about his relationship with Zach, if there was anything he could do to make things better between them.


	4. Wednesday (12/10) and Thursday (12/11)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kind of glossed over the Zach unfollowing Cleo scene, just because I don't actually know what caused him to unfollow. But I talk about the after effects of it, and I'll talk more about it in the next chapter. (: Enjoy! Don't forget to leave me a comment!

Wednesday was a pretty normal day for both Zach and Frankie.

Frankie woke up a little before 1 and got ready for an interview he had at 2 with HLN. They would be talking about YouTube and how he got started with making videos on there. After his interview, he and Doug got coffee and walked around New York in the snow, since Doug had never seen snow before. He tweeted out his backstage video for Rock of Ages and made a vine of Doug trying to catch snowflakes on his tongue.

Zach, on the other hand, stayed almost completely off social media. He tweeted out thank you’s to people who had donated to the twins during ZRL, and then he sat on the couch with Bella and gave her some attention while watching some random shows on TV. Peyton was in school and his parents were out, so he didn’t really have anything better to do. He spent the rest of the day in his room listening to Spotify. He might have listened to Break Free, Cry Me A River, and Somebody Loves You more than was necessary, but he didn’t really care. He knew Frankie was with Joan seeing Phantom of the Opera, because he’d tweeted about it over an hour ago. And even though he wanted to stop thinking about Frankie, he couldn’t.

Around 11 o’clock, Frankie tweeted about Justin Bieber again, and Zach groaned in frustration. He kept playing songs on Spotify, trying to drown out the thoughts in his head. He scrolled through Instagram. He scrolled through Twitter. He responded to some DMs. He was pretty bored with everything, but he didn’t feel like sleeping yet.

It was some time after midnight when Frankie tweeted about HLN again. Zach chose to ignore it and kept responding to DMs from some of his fans. He wasn’t really sure what time it was when Zach was reading through some messages, but one message lead to him leaving his inbox, typing in the username @MissCleoBB and hitting the unfollow button.

He stared at the button for a while, now reading “+Follow” instead of “Following.” He kind of felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He’d been wanting to unfollow him for a while, but now he’d been out of the house for almost three months and he was finally starting to feel like he could unfollow people he didn’t like. And he _really_ didn’t like Miss Cleo. He might even like Victoria more than he likes Cleo, and if that wasn’t saying something, he didn’t know what would.

**

Thursday morning, Zach got on a plane for Los Angeles. He would be filming for Bold and the Beautiful again while he was there, and he would be doing a photoshoot for the No H8 campaign. While he was on the plane, he scrolled through Spotify and added a few Mariah Carey songs to his playlist. They all made him think of Frankie, but the one that did the most was Heartbreaker. He found himself getting a little emotional and skipped the song halfway through because he didn't want Lindsay or anyone else on the plane seeing him crying like a giant baby. 

When they finally touched down and made their way to the hotel, Lindsay went through the schedule over the next few days with him. He nodded along, already knowing everything that she was saying. He was really excited for this party tonight with Rachel Reilly and some other reality TV stars he used to watch with his family. A night out after all the drama in the last week sounded like Heaven. 

He and Lindsay put their bags in their hotel room and walked down the street to a restaurant for lunch. Zach kept discreetly refreshing his apps underneath the table hoping for an update from Frankie’s social media pages just so he knew what he was up to. But all he saw were hundreds of people celebrating the fact that he’d unfollowed Cleo. He smirked to himself, glad people noticed and were happy.

“What are you smiling about?” Lindsay asked, taking a bite of her burger.

Zach shrugged, shoving his phone into his pocket. “Nothing. Everyone on Twitter is just happy right now.”

She gave him a look. “Because of you unfollowing Miss Cleo? You know, I wish you’d run shit like this by me before you did it so I know what to expect. I’m still your manager.”

Zach rolled his eyes. “So I need to run by who I unfollow with you now? No thanks, cuz.”

“I’m just saying. We all talked to him pretty much all summer, and--”

“Yea, Linds. I know,” he interrupted. “And I really have no idea why you wasted your time on him. He’s fucking gross.”

She held her hands up in surrender. “Don’t bite my head off. _Everyone_ talked to him, okay? He supported you all summer. That’s all I’m saying.”

He snorted, popping some french fries into his mouth. “He also treated Frankie like shit. The only reason I did that stupid interview with him after I got home was because mom made me. He treated Frankie like shit, he treats my fans like shit, he’s super creepy and delusional and thinks we have this friendship that doesn’t exist, and I got sick of it. So. Unfollowed.”

Lindsay stared at him for a moment and sighed, taking her phone out of her pocket. She started typing away and, after a couple moments, put her phone down so Zach could see the screen.

“There. Unfollowed,” she said, repeating his words. He saw Cleo’s Twitter page on her screen and the fact that she unfollowed him. “I’m on your side, Zach. I was never his number one fan or anything, I just appreciated that he supported you. But if you want to cut ties with him, then I’m with you.” She watched as Zach scrolled down her screen and then widen his eyes before bursting into laughter. “What?”

He pushed the phone towards her. “Did you fucking see his last tweet? The one he tagged us and mom and dad in? That is _such bullshit_. I don’t even fucking text him,” he laughed. “This guy is fucking insane. I unfollowed him _last night_ and now he’s posting this shit today to make it seem like it was his idea?!” He couldn’t stop laughing at how ridiculous this entire situation was. He had tears in his eyes from laughing so hard and his stomach was aching, and he knew people were probably looking at him like he was crazy, but he didn’t care.

Lindsay shook her head at him, laughing a little. “You’ve lost it. Frankie was right, you are a lunatic,” she giggled. Zach stopped laughing pretty quickly at the mention of Frankie, and she took in the look on her cousin’s face. “Sorry. Sorry. I forgot. No talking about...okay, anyway, let’s talk about this party tonight.”

**

“I’m so happy I get to spend all day with you tomorrow!” Frankie said, wrapping his arms around his sister.

Ari giggled. “Me too! Grande Jingle Dicks takeover,” she joked. He laughed at their old joke and kissed her cheek. “I wish I could come to your show tonight.”

He waved her off. “You’re busy, it’s fine. You’ll see it soon. Besides, I’ll have my girlfriend Meghan Trainor there with me.” She laughed, pushing him playfully.

“Cutest couple ever,” she teased.

“Duh, Rose.”

She smiled at him as she leaned against the kitchen counter. “So.”

He tensed slightly, knowing she was probably going to try to talk about Zach. “So...after the show tonight, I’ve got the tubeathon for Covenant House, and then I’m passing out so I can present my _beautiful, amazing_ sister with the Rising Star Award.”

She gave him a look but let it go, pulling him in and hugging him tightly. “I love you.”

**

“Unbelieveable,” Zach mumbled.

His fans were DM’ing him Cleo’s tweet and asking if it were true, and he can’t believe that some of them actually think this guy is being honest. He responded to a few people in frustration, telling them it wasn’t true, that Cleo was a fucking liar, and how disgusting he was. He told someone how Cleo had buttered up his mom all summer so he could get the first interview with Zach, and how his mom had made him do it. He knew he shouldn’t really be throwing her under the bus, but he just wanted to make it perfectly clear that he wanted nothing to do with this guy.

He told some people they could post his DMs for everyone to see; he didn’t really care. He wanted everyone to know that Cleo was making shit up and that Zach was completely done with him. And it was less messy than him having to tweet about it himself. 

He favorited a couple tweets about people wondering if the interview was forced and Zach following Cleo in the first place. He saw his mentions slowly and then extremely quickly blowing up with people asking him if the DMs were real. He considered just leaving it, but he wanted to confirm it so that everyone knew.

**@ranceypants**  
 _It’s real Rose_

**

The rest of the night was pretty busy. 

Zach went to the party and hung out with some people from Bold and the Beautiful and Big Brother. He mostly stuck to Rachel Reilly’s side for a good part of the night, but he tried not to bug her too much. He was having a good time. He had some drinks and they all took a bunch of pictures together. Zach was getting handed random things to wear on his head, like antlers and a leopard printed cowboy hat. It didn’t feel like it did when he was in New York, where he felt like he fit perfectly, or in Florida, where he already knew it felt like home. But he still loved it here in LA. It wasn’t perfect, but it was close. It just felt like there was a part missing, but he wasn’t sure what it was.

Frankie had his show, which went extremely well. Afterwards he got to see Meghan Trainor and Reed and Josh from Survivor. He talked to them for a little bit and then parted with Reed and Josh with plans to see each other the next time they were all free. Meghan stayed with him a little longer, and they talked about the Women in Music event tomorrow and Jingle Ball. Frankie was glad he’d get to spend time with her tomorrow too, and that he’d get to see her and his sister performing at the concert.

**@FrankieJGrande**  
 _I know you’re lying… Cause your lips are moving. [annoyed face emoji][lips emoji]_

The tubeathon went really well. Frankie was happy he could help raise money for the Covenant House. But he was also happy when he could crawl into his bed and not have to do anything until the next day. He desperately needed sleep, he just couldn’t fall asleep because of how excited he was. He spent some time going over his speech for Ari’s award presentation, making sure it was perfect. He was so proud of her, and he couldn’t wait to hand her the Rising Star award and hug her and listen to her acceptance speech.

**@FrankieJGrande**  
 _really really excited to spend the whole day & night with my sister tomorrow...breakfast, lunch, dinner, & jingle balls! can not wait! [smiling emoji]_

**@FrankieJGrande**  
 _oops… i meant jingle dicks! [wide eyes emoji][tongue out emoji][crying laughing emoji]_

Zach was getting ready for bed, wanting to get a good night’s sleep before he filmed the next afternoon for Bold and the Beautiful, when he finally checked all his notifications he’d received during the party. He saw Frankie’s picture with Meghan Trainor and saw that Frankie had liked Reed’s picture of the two of them with Josh. Frankie had his flirty look in place, and even though Zach knew Reed and Josh weren’t single, he still felt a flare of jealousy that Frankie was looking at other guys the way he used to look at him. He saw Frankie’s tweets about Jingle Ball before he locked his phone, and Zach remembered all the times he and Frankie talked about Zach flying to New York to see Ari perform at Jingle Ball, and how they’d be the ones cheering the loudest for her. Now he was on the opposite side of the country, and he wasn’t sure he and Frankie would ever watch Ari together.

Over in New York, Frankie was scrolling through the pictures Rachel Reilly had posted from the party, taking in the goofy and happy looks on Zach’s face. He sighed softly, closing out of his apps and setting his alarm. He plugged his phone in and pulled his blanket up over his shoulders, closing his eyes as he tried to sleep. He desperately wanted to talk to Zach, but he didn’t want to ruin his trip by potentially starting another fight. He hoped that he could talk to Zach after he was back home in Florida.


	5. Friday (12/12) and Saturday (12/13)

By noon the next day, Frankie was headed to the Women in Music event dressed head to toe in pink. He’d put temporary pink dye in his hair and wore his pink suit jacket and pants from the AMAs, in addition to an actual shirt and pink tie. He posed for a bunch of pictures outside, including some with Meghan Trainor. He did a couple interviews, bragging about how amazing Ariana was.

Around the same time on the opposite coast, Zach was heading to the Bold and the Beautiful set with Lindsay. They’d left early since traffic in LA was always terrible. When they finally made it there, they were ushered off to a decent sized dressing room. He had a chunk of time before he actually needed to be on set, so he checked Instagram and Twitter, then took a shirtless selfie in the mirror and uploaded it to Shots. He scrolled through Twitter for a few more minutes before getting dressed in the clothes they had set aside for him and when an assistant came to bring him to set, he handed Lindsay his phone and followed her out the door.

**

“...If the world wasn’t ready for Ariana Grande, then she would make them ready. And that is why it is such an incredible honor for my sister and my entire family that she is being honored as the recipient of the 2014 Billboard Rising Star Award...Let’s take a look at her journey.”

The video of Ariana’s career played on a screen behind him. As it ended, she came out on stage and he hugged her tightly, whispering how proud he was of her. She gave her acceptance speech and Frankie couldn’t stop smiling at her. He always knew that she was destined for greatness. He couldn’t have been happier even if it was himself accepting an award.

**

Zach practically crashed into the hotel room after he got back from filming. It wasn’t like he had a huge role, but he was in a few scenes, and they’d done several takes each time. He was exhausted, even though it was just past 1 o’clock on the west coast, and all he wanted to do was take a nap before he and Lindsay went out to dinner in a few hours. If there was one thing Zach hated, it was changing time zones. It had taken him forever to get some semblance of a normal sleep schedule when he’d gotten back to Florida after Big Brother, and flying to LA for a few days definitely was going to mess it up a bit.

He crawled into his bed and sat on his phone for a few minutes, checking his social media pages. He retweeted a picture of himself and two of the actresses from set this morning, letting everyone know that his episode would air in early February. He yawned and locked his phone, placing it on the bed beside him and closing his eyes. This nap was going to be the best thing to ever happen to him. The bed was so comfortable and the room was so quiet. 

But of course, since the universe hated him, his phone started ringing loudly and he groaned, burying his face in his pillow. He grabbed it and checked the screen, then did a double take after seeing Frankie’s name. He slid his thumb across the screen to accept it and put the phone up to his ear.

“Frankie?”

“Hi. Uh...I wasn’t sure that you were going to answer. I thought you might still be filming or something…” he trailed off.

Zach cleared his throat, rolling over onto his back. “No, I was just trying to take a nap.”

Frankie winced. “Sorry. I’ll let you go.”

“No,” Zach said quickly. “It’s fine. I’m awake…...Why’d you call? I thought you were supposed to be with Ari all day.”

Frankie hesitated. “I am, I was just….I wanted to know if we could talk. After you get back from LA,” he added.

Zach furrowed his eyebrows, sitting up a little. “Why not now?”

“I don’t want to ruin your trip, Zach. I don’t want to fight. You’ve got a lot to do this week over there, and I don’t want to mess that up. The only reason I called now was because I saw you retweeted that picture of you on set, and it sounded like you might’ve been done filming.”

Zach ran his hand through his hair, sighing quietly. “Frankie, I want to talk now. I don’t want to wait till I get back home. This has been a shitty week. Why are you making me wait? Haven’t you punished me enough by now?”

“I’m not trying to punish you--”

Zach scoffed. “That’s exactly what you’re doing. Because I got too clingy and jealous and you hate that, so you’re punishing me.”

He stayed quiet for a minute, and Zach heard him take a deep breath through the phone. “That’s not---don’t try to make me fight with you right now. Look, I have to go. Ari and I are having dinner really quick before Jingle Ball. Just...call me when you get back home, okay? We’ll talk then.”

Zach pinched the bridge of his nose. “Sure, until you come up with a reason not to talk to me when I get home. Sounds great,” he said sarcastically.

“Zach...I’m trying to fix things, okay? I just want you to enjoy LA and do your No H8 campaign, and then we can talk. I don’t want to make any mistakes that I can’t take back. So just...have fun and call me when you get home. Okay?”

He picked at the fabric of his blanket and nodded to himself. “Yea. Okay,” he said quietly. He waited a moment, just listening to Frankie breathing through the phone. “Have fun with Ari tonight. And tell her congrats for me.”

“I will,” Frankie replied softly. “Thank you.”

He scrubbed his hand down his face. “Bye Frankie.”

**

He couldn’t really nap after that. His head was swimming with thoughts of how his and Frankie’s conversation would go after he got back to Florida. Dozens of scenarios played through his mind, and he prayed the ones with positive outcomes were what actually happened. Frankie didn’t really seem as upset with him anymore, especially since he was the one who suggested they talk.

He tossed and turned in the bed for another half hour before giving up and opening up Twitter on his phone. He blinked tiredly at his screen, scrolling through his timeline and favoriting the occasional tweet. He stopped at one in particular. He wasn’t even tagged in it, but he hit the favorite button as soon as he finished reading it.

****_Zach Rance favorited_  
@rachvodkacran   
_frankie cares so much about everyone and hes willing to learn from mistakes and hes just literally an angel_

He knew his fans would start spazzing as soon as they noticed that he favorited something about Frankie, especially something as ridiculously sappy as this tweet and _especially_ after they’d been getting hardly any interaction between him and Frankie for the last week. He closed Twitter and decided to turn the TV on, flipping through channels aimlessly to see if anything caught his interest.

**

Frankie was humming to himself in the car on the way to Madison Square Garden. Ari was sitting beside him texting Sean, so he opened Snapchat and checked some pictures people and sent to him. He saw one from Zach and opened it to see him standing next to a picture of Marilyn Monroe with the word “Bae” typed onto his shoulder. He found himself grinning and shaking his head. Ari peaked over his shoulder and smirked.

“You boys working things out, I take it?”

He shrugged, closing out of Snapchat and clicking on his Twitter app. “We’re going to talk after he gets back from LA. I didn’t want to get in a fight over the phone while we’ve both got other things to focus on.”

“Uh huh,” she said skeptically. “So you’re not mad at him anymore?”

Frankie sighed, typing out a tweet about Jingle Ball. “I’m still _mad_ ; I shouldn’t have to wait around for him to wake up one day and be able to tell people he’s my boyfriend.”

“But,” she pressed.

He rolled his eyes. “ _But_...I don’t know, I miss him, okay? He’s stubborn and gets jealous easily and drives me absolutely insane, but I miss him. I’m just not ready to deal with that conversation yet.”

She let out a long dramatic sigh. “Boys. So dumb.” She shakes her head, giggling at the look on Frankie’s face. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to distract you plenty during the show. We’ll have a good time.” 

**

“Heartbreaker, you got the best of me, and I just keep on comin’ back incessantly. Oh why did you have to run your game on me? I should have known right from the start you’d go and break my heart,” Zach sang loudly offkey. 

He’d been listening to Spotify for the last hour or so while he waited for Lindsay to finish getting ready for dinner. He had been listening to Heartbreaker pretty frequently since he’d added it to his playlist on the plane yesterday. 

He watched Lindsay brush her hair in the mirror and saw her wincing as he screeched along to the lyrics. That only made him sing louder, winking at her as she turned around and threw a towel at him.

“Oh my god, please stop with the heartbroken wallowing, I’m begging you. My ears can’t take it.”

He groaned, flopping backwards into his pillows. “Linds, I’m trying to make myself feel better, here! You’re supposed to be supporting me. Or at least distracting me, which you really suck at, by the way.”

She put her brush down next to the sink and walked over to his bed, crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re 24 years old. I shouldn’t have to babysit you so you don’t sit here and cry because your boyfriend isn’t talking to you. I’ve been trying to get your mind off him, but I don’t know what you want me to do. You went to the party last night, you filmed today, you’ve got your shoot tomorrow. I’m trying to keep you busy.” She sighed. “Tell me what you want me to do, Zach.”

He frowned and fiddled with his bracelet. After a minute, he looked up at her. “Can you just...can you just cuddle with me for a minute?” He blushed, feeling a little embarrassed for asking. He hated admitting that he sometimes needed people to take care of him.

Lindsay gave him a sympathetic look and crawled up the bed next to him, wrapping her arms around him. She kissed his shoulder and smiled softly at him. “Okay.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Zach spoke again. “Sorry. You don’t suck at distracting me. I’m just...I don’t know.”

“You’re sad,” she said. “Because you and Frankie are fighting. I know. And I’m sorry. You’re allowed to be sad. I just prefer it when you’re being goofy and obnoxious.”

He let out a short laugh. “Me too.” He groaned, sitting up and running his hands through his hair. “Alright, cousin bonding over.”

She rolled her eyes at him and gave him a playful shove. “Okay, fine, no more feelings,” she teased. “Let’s go get some food.”

He chuckled and stood up, making sure he had his wallet and phone in his pocket. He put his arm around Lindsay’s shoulder, kissing the top of her head. “Thanks, Linds.”

She smiled at him. “I told you I’m always on your side. Now come on. I’ll treat you to dinner.”

**

**@FrankieJGrande**   
_In Madison Square Garden about to see my sister SLAY the stage at #jingleball……. DYING!!!!! [tongue emojis]_

**@FrankieJGrande**   
_WOOOOOO GURL…… [laughing crying emojis]_

**FrankieJGrande**   
_I am sooooooo overwhelmed right now…. ARIANA WAS INCREDIBLE AT #JINGLEBALL & dedicated BREAK FREE to me and I SOBBED & DANCED FOR JOY!! [laughing crying emoji][double heart emoji][crying emoji]_

Frankie had never been happier. Ari had absolutely killed it at Jingle Ball, and she’d dedicated Break Free to him and he’d screamed so loudly. He made a couple videos with his mom and with Emma Roberts through the night and added some pictures and videos to his Snapchat story. He spent an hour or so after the show ended tweeting about how amazing it was and uploading videos to Instagram and Vine. 

He retweeted a couple tweets about Ari dedicating Break Free to him and one that had a picture of him being interviewed on the red carpet.

Around 1:30 in the morning, while he was sitting with his mom and his sister on the couch, the music video for Santa Tell Me was released. Frankie retweeted Ari’s post about it and then tweeted about it himself while she pulled the video up on her computer for them to watch.

**@FrankieJGrande**   
_And the #SantaTellMeMusicVideo is out. Why is this actually the greatest night of my life? vevo.ly/x04eWr_

**

Saturday was pretty busy for both of them. Zach got up early to get ready for his No H8 shoot. After showering and relinquishing the bathroom to Lindsay, he got dressed in a plain white t-shirt and some jeans, then scrolled through his mentions on Twitter. He went on a favorite spree, favoriting several tweets, including one from a girl who had gotten light switch covers with a picture of him on one and a picture of Frankie on another.

About an hour later while he was in the elevator heading down to the main floor of the hotel, he recorded a Snapchat video talking to one of the pictures on the elevator wall just because he was bored.

He did the shoot and he was really excited to get the pictures next month. He had a lot of fun with it, and he thought everyone was really nice. He kept the No H8 paint on his face when they left so he could take pictures in the car to post to Instagram. He opened up Snapchat and meant to take a picture but accidentally ended up recording a video. He posted it anyway, knowing his fans would find it funny. 

**@ranceypants**   
_Thank you to everyone w/ @NOH8Campaign and @bouska can’t wait to see the pics! #NOH8Day #NOH8 [photo]_

As Lindsay drove them to get a late lunch, Zach favorited more tweets, mostly of people who had received their Sawagoo shirts in the mail. He favorited one from a fan who tagged him and Frankie telling them she loved them and he sighed, his skin itching to get back to Florida so he and Frankie could talk. He didn’t really know how much longer he could wait to try and fix everything.

**

Frankie had a double show day, so he wasn’t on his phone for most of the day. During a break around 6 o’clock, he was texting his sister about doing a video together when he got home and she told him to tweet about it.

**@FrankieJGrande**   
_If Ari & I were to do a brother sister Q&A video what would you want to know? Ask away using #FrankieNAriQA [heart emojis][cloud emojis][moon emojis][cloud emojis]_

**@FrankieJGrande**   
_This is gonna be a fun video!!! [tongue emojis][heart emojis][kiss emojis][heart emojis][cloud emojis] (how’s my emoji game Ari?) #FrankieNAriQA_

Whenever he had a chunk of time offstage, he would check Twitter and he favorited a handful of tweets people sent him for the video. He posted a picture of him and Meghan Trainor from Jingle Ball the night before and a gif from him on the red carpet.

On his walk home from the theatre, he posted a video on Instagram that he and a few of his female castmates had recorded during intermission of them parodying the Santa Tell Me video.

He and Ari recorded their Q & A video around 4:30 in the morning. Frankie was admittedly extremely exhausted, but he gathered up enough energy to get through it. They laughed a lot and told stories about their Christmas traditions and watching movies together. At one point, Frankie smiled and rested his forehead on her shoulder, thinking to himself how much he loved his sister.

**@FrankieJGrande**   
_had so much fun with Ari answering all your #FrankieNAriQA questions… video coming this week. [double heart emojis][cloud emojis]_

**@FrankieJGrande**   
_Goodnight Grandtourage…. I love you. [sleeping emoji][dream bubble emoji][swirling heart emoji][shooting star emoji][crown emoji][love letter emoji][happy guy emoji]_

He kissed Ari’s head and said goodnight, knowing he had another double show day tomorrow. After brushing his teeth and getting undressed, he crawled beneath his covers and spent a few minutes checking Twitter and Instagram. He caught himself right before favoriting a tweet someone sent him of a picture of Zach with duct tape over his mouth and No H8 painted on his cheek. He’d been good about not liking anything about Zach on social media for the last week, and he didn’t feel like breaking that streak now before they’d even had their talk.

He set his alarm for 1 o’clock in the afternoon and plugged his phone in. He fell asleep pretty quickly, dreaming of Christmas trees and cute frat boys with duct tape covering their mouths.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will have the boys talking things out finally! (;


	6. Sunday (12/14) and Monday (12/15)

Frankie slept a little later than usual on Sunday, since the show didn’t start until 3pm. He woke around 1:30 to his alarm and got up to take a shower and eat some food. He threw on his typical black wife beater and put on a red Henley over it. He wrapped himself up in his typical winter gear and grabbed his bag before leaving for the theatre.

About half way there, his phone chimed in his pocket indicating he had a text message.

**Zach Rance**  
 _Hi_

Frankie bit his lip, smiling a little. His fingers hovered over the letters of the keyboard and he decided to give Zach some encouragement to keep texting him.

**Frankie Grande**  
 _Hey babe. What’s up?_

**Zach Rance**  
 _[smiling emoji] Just chilling at the mall. You?_

**Frankie Grande**  
 _Almost at the theatre. It’s cold out [frowning emoji]_

**Zach Rance**  
 _Sorry [frowning emoji] I’d warm you up if I could_

Frankie grinned to himself, pocketing his phone until he got to the theatre and made his way to his dressing room. He peeled off his jacket, hat and scarf and settled down in his chair, pulling his phone back out.

**Frankie Grande**  
 _Oh yea? And how exactly would you do that? [winky emoji]_

**Zach Rance**  
 _Ugh come on don’t tease me._

Frankie tapped his fingers against the makeup table, smiling a little as it felt like he and Zach were getting back to normal. He opened up his camera and took a picture of him puckering his lips. He attached it to his next text and typed out a message to go along with it.

**Frankie Grande**  
 _Not teasing. [photo] I gotta get ready for the show, but I’ll talk to u later. [kiss emoji] Have fun at the mall._

**

Zach groaned as the last text came in from Frankie. Everything finally seemed to be looking up, and now Frankie had to get ready for his show. He just wanted to keep talking to Frankie and hopefully talk about the last week and a half.

He stared at Frankie’s picture for a minute, smiling to himself. Someone tried squeezing past him and bumped his shoulder, making him remember he was in the mall. He walked around a few stores, trying on some things but not really buying anything.

After he stopped to get himself something to eat from the food court and continuing to walk around, he took a picture of himself in a pair of oversized rainbow peace sign sunglasses and added it to his snapchat story. Not long after that, his phone buzzed with a notification from Twitter.

**@FrankieJGrande**  
 _I love u. [lips emoji][double heart emoji] instagram.com/p/wmhzBesiqe/_

Zach found himself smiling brightly seeing the picture Frankie had texted him earlier accompanying the message. He clicked on the instagram link and read Frankie’s caption, trying not to bump into anyone as he walked.

**@frankiegrande**  
 _this was a text but I decided I wanted to share the love with you all so… [lips emoji][double heart emoji]_

Zach laughed a little and shook his head, pulling up his text conversation with Frankie.

**Zach Rance**  
 _I love you too, you froot loop. [double heart emoji]_

**

Most of the rest of the night, Zach sat in his hotel room listening to Spotify. He didn’t really have anything to do, since he and Lindsay had already gone to dinner, and she’d gone out to do some shopping in LA so she didn’t have to watch Zach go back and forth between being extremely happy that’d he talked to Frankie and then panicked that their talk wouldn’t go well when he got back to Florida. 

He was scrolling through Instagram for a few minutes when he saw that Frankie had liked a picture Jon-Erik had posted of him, Frankie, Meghan Trainor, and her friend from Jingle Ball. He double tapped the picture to like it and took a minute to appreciate the fact that the pink tips had temporarily been back in Frankie’s hair.

**

It was past 2 in the morning and Frankie was absolutely _dying_. Nicki Minaj had released her new album, and she had a song with Ariana on it. Frankie had bought it as soon as it came out and had been blaring it since then. He was completely ignoring the fact that his little sister was singing about getting eaten out by a guy for his own sanity, even though they talked about sex pretty often. 

He’d pretty much memorized most of the lyrics by the third or fourth time he’d replayed it and was singing along while tapping his feet together as he lounged in bed.

**@FrankieJGrande**  
 _get on your knees…… [speak no evil monkey emojis][tongue out emojis][clapping emojis][double heart emojis][music note emojis]_

He was on his seventh repeat of the song when his phone buzzed with a text message.

**Zach Rance**  
 _That what you want? Want me on my knees for you?_

Frankie grinned immediately. He took a picture of himself looking seductively at the camera and attached it to his next text.

**Frankie Grande**  
 _[photo] Mmmmm always [winky emoji]_

**Zach Rance**  
 _Am I down here to suck your dick or are you gonna fuck me daddy?_

Frankie groaned and reached down to press his palm against his hardening dick. Zach was getting really brave with his sexting, and it was absolute torture to have him all the way on the other side of the country.

**Frankie Grande**  
 _Definitely both. Just gotta get you alone… [smirking emoji]_

**Zach Rance**  
 _I’m all yours [winky emoji] [photo]_

Zach attached a picture of his body from the neck down laying in bed. He was shirtless, giving Frankie a nice shot of his muscles all the way down to the V of his hips, and then the rest hidden away by a sheet. Zach’s hand was cupping himself for the picture, and Frankie exhaled slowly, saving the picture to his phone before responding back to him.

**Frankie Grande**  
 _Careful, baby. Teases get spanked. [hand emoji]_

**Zach Rance**  
 _Please [praying emoji]_

Frankie gave himself a squeeze and cursed beneath his breath. 

**Frankie Grande**  
 _Soon_

**Frankie Grande**  
 _It’s late. Tty tomorrow?_

**Zach Rance**  
 _[thumbs up emoji] love you_

He smiled to himself, desperately wishing that Zach was there with him.

**Frankie Grande**  
 _love U_

**

Monday morning, Zach posted an edit a fan made on Instagram for Sawagoo that was made in the font for Ari’s song Santa Tell Me, then Zach and Lindsay flew back to Florida a few days earlier than they had originally planned. Initially, they were going to stay for a couple reality TV parties that Murtz had invited him to, but after Zach’s talk with Frankie where they’d agreed to talk when he got back home, he’d pretty much begged Lindsay to change their flight to an earlier day so he could get home and they could sort everything out. He’d even made plans with Erik and Logan in Miami and warned Josh that he would be doing ZRL on Tuesday. Lindsay had eventually agreed and got them a flight for Monday.

Zach didn’t tell anyone else that he would be flying home that day. He didn’t tell Murtz, he didn’t tell Frankie, and he didn’t tell his parents. He’d contemplated seeing if he could get a flight to New York and then just fly back to Florida on Tuesday, but Lindsay had shut that down pretty fast, saying how it would cost too much money and that it wouldn’t be cool of him to show up at Frankie’s doorstep unannounced. 

They landed in Florida around 4:30. They got back to Zach’s house just past 5 o’clock, and Zach left Lindsay to explain their early return to his parents while he brought his suitcase to his room. He took his phone out of pocket and opened up Twitter again to continue favoriting tweets like he’d done on the car ride home from the airport. He favorited several people’s tweets who had received their Sawagoo shirts in the mail, some random tweets for the hell of it, and one that was a screencap of a story someone had apparently shared on Tumblr about how his and Frankie’s relationship had helped a kid who had told his straight best friend he was gay, and how “Zankie” had been similar to his own friendship before he’d come out. Zach read the whole thing, smiling to himself at how much of an impact his relationship with Frankie helps others. He finished reading it and went to Frankie’s page to see if he’d tweeted anything recently.

**@FrankieJGrande**  
 _So many good things coming this week! Can’t wait to share it with you #Grandtourage! [kiss emoji][vibrating heart emoji][grinning emoji]_

**@FrankieJGrande**  
 _Baby I’mma need U to beg for it._

The last one was from just a few minutes before, and Zach grinned, knowing it was Frankie’s way of letting him know the tweet was for him. He opened up his phone log and pressed Frankie’s name as he closed his bedroom door. It rang a few times before Frankie’s voice came over the line.

“Hey you.”

Zach smiled. “Hey.” He sat down on his bed, rubbing his thumb along his bottom lip. “So you need me to beg for it, huh? Thought I was doing that last night,” he teased.

“Mmmm, you certainly were. I could use a little more begging though. Preferably in person. With you on your knees.”

Zach giggled, his face heating up. “You know I’d be there in a heartbeat if I could.” He inhaled a nervous breath, tugging at his hair a little. “So...can we talk?”

Frankie hesitated. “I uh...I thought we agreed we’d talk when you got back to Florida.”

He nodded to himself. “We did. Which is why I want to talk.”

“You’re in Florida? Already? I thought you weren’t supposed to go home until this weekend.” Frankie asked. 

“I wasn’t.” he replied. “But I was going crazy waiting around, and I don’t even give a shit about those shows to care about going to some party for them. All I wanted to do was come home so we can talk...can we?”

He heard Frankie groan quietly. “I thought I had a few more days to prepare for this.”

Zach found himself smiling and leaning back to lay against his pillows. “I thought you’d learned to expect the unexpected by now.”

Frankie laughed. “So did I, but somehow, you never fail to surprise me.”

He picked at the material of his shirt anxiously. “I hope that’s a good thing.”

“It can be,” Frankie said softly.

Zach opened his mouth to speak when his bedroom door opened. “Hang on,” he said into the phone. “What, mom?”

His mother gave him a look. “You didn’t even tell Murtz you weren’t going to the party?”

He gave her a sheepish look. “I forgot?” She raised her eyebrow at him, and he rushed to think of something to say, because that eyebrow had made him confess to every bad thing he’d ever done since he was a kid. Jewish women were scary sometimes. “Mom, it’s no big deal. I’ll text him later, okay? I just...wanted to come home, and now I need to talk to Frankie.”

Jill shook her head at him, sighing. “You’re 24 years old, Zachary. If you’re going to cancel on an event you’d agreed to be at, you have to tell them you won’t be there. You can’t just not show up. It makes you look unprofessional.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, giving her puppy dog eyes. “I’ll talk to Murtz, it’ll be fine.”

She stared at him for a moment and then rolled her eyes. “You better. Tell Frankie I say hello.” She turned and walked back out his door, closing it behind her and making Zach breath a sigh of relief.

“Sorry,” he apologized to Frankie. “Uh, mom says hi.”

Frankie laughed, making Zach smile. “Did you not cancel your plans in LA? God, you really _should_ be spanked.”

Zach hummed. “Then fly down here and spank me, babe.”

He groaned. “What has gotten into you lately? All this dirty talk…”

Zach blushed and shrugged, even though he knew Frankie couldn’t see him. “Guess that’s what happens when you don’t talk to me for a while. I get uncontrollably horny and want you in whatever way I can get you.”

“Guess so. I should stop talking to you more often.”

Zach frowned and turned onto his side so he could tuck the phone between his ear and the pillow. “Fuck that. This has been torture, Frankie. I hate fighting with you. I hate you ignoring me. I just…...I just want my boyfriend back.”

“I’m right here,” Frankie said softly.

Zach closed his eyes, imagining that Frankie was actually in the room with him. “I know I pissed you off with the jealous thing about Chester. I’m not sorry I was jealous...but I am sorry if I overreacted.”

“You weren’t the only one who overreacted. I really didn’t think it was a big deal, and I didn’t get why you were so upset about it. I took it out a little hard on you.” Frankie paused. “But I get why you didn’t like it, and I’m sorry too. I should’ve considered how you would feel about it.”

He rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling with his phone pressed to his ear. “I know he’s, like…...not a threat or anything. I just don’t like seeing you with other guys. I can never tell when you’re being serious or not when you flirt with other people.”

“Yea, well…” he started out. “That works both ways. I never know if I have to worry about you hooking up with some girl while you’re out with your friends. Sometimes I’m not really sure if this is what you really want.”

Zach sat up a little, clenching his phone tighter in his grasp. “How can you even say that? I barely even go out with my friends! Ninety percent of the time I’m sitting around waiting for you to get offstage so you can text me back. I talk to you more than I talk to anyone. I’m changing my entire life around just so I can be with you, Frankie.”

“You’re not _changing_ anything, Zach. Every time you take a step towards coming out, you end up taking five steps back. And that’s ignoring the fact that more often than not, you tell _me_ that you’re straight.” Zach groaned, punching his pillow in frustration.

“What the fuck do you want me to say? I am straight. Before you, I didn’t think about what a guy would feel like or kiss like or how it would feel to have a dick in my ass. I fucked girls, and that’s it. That’s all I wanted. You’re the only one that makes me think about shit like that. I don’t want any other guys. I want _you_. And I don’t know why you can’t just accept that I’ve already come out to my parents and my brother and my friends as dating you. Why do I need to have some bullshit label for the fans and the entire world to justify my feelings for you?”

“That’s not--” Frankie cut himself off as his voice raised higher. He took a deep breath and lowered his voice. “That’s not it, Zach. It’s the fact that you act as if you only like women, and as if nothing happened between us in the house that was more than just friends. You can’t go around insulting your fans--our fans--for thinking there’s something between us. Especially when there _is_ something between us, and you’re just too afraid to tell everyone.”

He pushed the heel of his palm against his eye, trying to stop himself from getting emotional. “I’m not afraid,” he protested. “I just...I don’t want to share you or us with anyone. I want to keep you all to myself and not have to constantly update people on what we’re doing and reassure them we don’t hate each other if we don’t interact on social media for five seconds. And I don’t want you to think I’m not _trying_ , because I _am_. Being away from you all the time sucks, but I’ve been trying to make an effort even though we’re on opposite ends of the east coast. Sometimes I say things I don’t mean because this long distance thing is so fucking hard and I don’t know what to do when you’re not with me.”

“Well maybe we should stop doing the long distance thing, then.”

Zach felt himself freeze, hoping that he heard wrong, and that Frankie didn’t just suggest them ending their relationship. He tried to scramble for something to say that would change Frankie’s mind, and he found himself saying “Then I’ll move to New York,” before he’d even consciously decided what to say.

**

Frankie thought his heart stopped for a minute. He was pretty sure he was imitating a fish by the constant opening and closing of his mouth, in a slight state of shock at what Zach had said.

“You’ll….what?”

“I’ll move to New York,” Zach repeated more firmly, as though he had realized what he’d said and been sure that was the right thing to say. “I don’t have anything to do here. Florida is boring as fuck. And I’d rather be in New York with you where we can actually be together.”

Frankie laughed in disbelief. “Zach, you can’t just pick up and move to New York!” His heart fluttered in excitement at the thought, and he desperately tried to push it down so he didn’t get let down if Zach changed his mind.

“Why not? I’m not in school, I don’t have a job, I only have one more event for the twins right before New Year’s Eve. AJ told me back in November that he wouldn’t mind if I moved in with him. So why can’t I?”

Frankie paced in his room, running his hand through his hair. “Because! That’s….” He wasn’t even really sure what to say. 

Zach’s voice dropped, getting all soft and serious just like Frankie liked. “If our biggest problem is that you’re in New York and I’m in Florida, then why _wouldn’t_ I come to New York? Frankie, you’re so important to me. I don’t want to fuck this up. Just...give me a month to get everything all set, and I’ll be there.”

“A month?” Frankie asked skeptically. A month was plenty of time for Zach to change his mind.

“What’s today, December 15th? Okay, so, just give me to January 15th. One month, Frankie, that’s all I’m asking,” he begged. “Let me break it to my parents and to Peyton, make sure everything’s set with AJ, spend the holidays with everyone here, and then I’ll get on a plane and I’ll be there. We can work everything out and everything will be better. I promise.”

Frankie inhaled shakily, sitting down on the edge of his bed. “I swear, Zach, if you change your mind--”

“I won’t,” he interrupted. “I mean it, Frankie. I’m completely serious. I want to move to New York. I want to figure things out with you and I want us to be happy and together again. I love you. Just give me until next month, and I promise you, everything will be better.”

Frankie smiled a little, letting himself actually entertain the idea of Zach moving to New York City to be with him. “I love you too. So fucking much.” He bit his lip, trying to stop his smile from growing into a full blown grin. “So….January 15th?”

“January 15th,” Zach confirmed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one more chapter left!


	7. Wednesday (12/24) and Thursday (12/25)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last day of Hanukkah and Christmas reunion in Florida.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time jump to last day of Hanukkah and Christmas. This is the last chapter! Sorry for the long wait <3 Hope you enjoy, and happy Valentine's day! Smut warning on this one.

Zach ran to the door as the bell rang, throwing the door open. He launched himself at Frankie, wrapping his around around his neck and hugging him tightly.

Frankie laughed, returning the hug. "Hey baby." He pressed a loud kiss against his neck. "Happy Hanukkah."

Zach giggled, pulling back from the hug to see Frankie's face. "Happy Hanukkah." He slid his hand to Frankie's jaw and pulled him into a kiss. Frankie sighed happily, kissing him back eagerly.

This was their first time seeing each other since their big fight a couple weeks before. It had looked bad for a little bit, but they'd eventually talked everything through, and Zach had asked Frankie to fly to Florida earlier than he'd planned and spend the last night of Hanukkah with him and his family. He'd hesitated at first, because he'd already taken a handful of shows off for events, but he desperately wanted to see Zach again. 

Zach pulled back from the kiss and smiled at him, brushing their noses together lightly. "I missed you." 

Frankie felt his heart flutter and pressed another short kiss against Zach's lips. "I missed you too."

"C'mon inside. Everyone's glad you're coming."

Frankie grinned and leaned into Zach ear. "Mmm, I'm not coming yet. Hopefully later, though." He slid his hand down to grab Zach's ass and nipped at his earlobe, making his boyfriend giggle.

"If you behave during dinner," Zach compromised. Frankie gave his ass another squeeze and then detached himself, leaning down to the steps to grab his carry-on from his flight.

"I'll do my best," he winked. "Just try not to look so sexy so I can control myself."

**

Zach got up from the table with his plate and started to head towards the kitchen. He stopped and pressed a kiss against Frankie’s shoulder and gave him a smile.

“You want some more?”

Frankie nodded. “I’ll come with you.”

Zach shook his head, reaching forward to grab Frankie’s plate. “You stay and talk. I’ll get it.” 

He kissed Frankie’s cheek lightly and went into the kitchen to put some more food on their plates. He smiled to himself as he listened to his parents ask Frankie about Rock of Ages. He’d been so happy when his mom had suggested inviting Frankie to dinner, and he’d spent the better part of an hour convincing Frankie over the phone to fly to Florida a day earlier than planned so they could spend time together.

He brought their plates back to the table, putting Frankie’s down in front of him and squeezing his shoulder and smiling as he thanked him.

“So Frankie,” Kevin said. “You ready to have Zach up in New York with you?”

Frankie laughed. “Absolutely. I miss him too much when he's all the way down here.”

Zach grinned. “Miss you too, Rose.”

“Good.” He gave Zach this look that felt like the very definition of heart eyes, and he reached over to lace their fingers together.

Peyton giggled from the end of the table. “You guys are so obsessed with each other.”

Zach rolled his eyes. “Shut up, Peyton.” Peyton stuck his tongue out at him which Zach returned.

“It’s true, we are,” Frankie said. Zach didn’t object, just squeezed his hand and then let go so he could continue eating.

They all continued talking as they finished eating. Zach chimed in every once and a while, but he was too busy enjoying the fact that Frankie was with them to talk too much. Seeing as how he didn’t really date before Frankie, he’d never had anyone over for Hanukkah. Watching Frankie fit right in with everyone and having him within arms distance made Zach a lot happier than he thought it would.

He wrapped his arm around Frankie’s shoulders as his parents got into a conversation with Peyton and leaned in, pressing a kiss against his lips.

“I love you,” he mumbled. 

Frankie smiled brightly, kissing him again. “I love you too. Happy Hanukkah.”

**

“I have never been more full in my entire life,” Frankie giggled from his spot on his bed. 

Zach rolled his eyes playfully. “Liar, you were just this full at Thanksgiving. Maybe even more so.” 

After dinner, they’d said goodbye to Zach’s family and headed to Boca to stay with Frankie’s family for Christmas. Zach had been pretty overwhelmed, since this was his first real Christmas, but the Grande’s had made him feel right at home. 

Zach grinned as he pulled his shirt off and put it with his overnight bag. He jumped onto Frankie, both of them laughing as Zach pressed kisses against Frankie’s neck. Frankie’s hands slid up and down his sides, and it felt like Frankie was _everywhere_. Zach grinded himself against Frankie and nipped at his ear.

Frankie moaned softly, pulling Zach as close as possible. “Whatever. Hanukkah food is delicious. And Christmas Eve food. I couldn’t--oh _fuck_ , that feels good.” He angled his hips upward to grind against Zach some more. “Zach,” he whined.

Zach brushed their lips together, teasing him. "I seem to remember promising you that you'd be coming later."

"I didn't know if you still wanted to or if you were too tired." He whined as Zach ran his hand down Frankie's chest and abs and slid it into his underwear. His eyes closed, enjoying the feeling of Zach's hand wrapped around him and jerking him off slowly.

Zach kissed his cheek. "I haven't seen you in over a month. I'm not waiting any longer just because I'm a little tired."

Frankie let out a short laugh, thrusting his hips into Zach’s hand. “And if someone hears us?”

Zach smirked. “Then I hope they enjoy listening to us fucking.” He tightened his hand a little around Frankie’s cock and kissed him, covering up Frankie’s moan.

“You’re gonna be the death of me,” Frankie breathed.

“What a way to go.” He slid his tongue inside Frankie’s mouth, letting it tease along the roof of his mouth and Frankie’s tongue. He licked Frankie’s bottom lip and then took it between his teeth, tugging gently.

Frankie tangled his hand in the hair at the base of Zach’s neck. “I’ve been a terrible influence on you.”

He scoffed. “I think you mean an amazing influence.” He twisted his hand from the base of Frankie’s dick up to the head and slid his thumb across the top to spread the precum around. “I think you should influence your dick in my ass, though. Like, really soon, because I’m hard as a fucking rock right now and I missed having you in me.”

Frankie groaned, burying his face into Zach’s neck. “Fuck. Yea.” He licked up the side of Zach’s neck. “Wanna fuck that perfect ass. It’s been way too long.”

“Longest month of my life,” he agreed. 

Frankie tugged on Zach’s hand until he released him, and he flipped their positions so Zach was lying on his back. He leaned down, pressing kisses against Zach’s neck.

“You want me to fuck you, Daddy?” Zach moaned and nodded eagerly, pulling Frankie closer.

“Been thinking about it for days.”

Frankie trailed his fingers across the top of Zach’s briefs. “Yea? Did you clean yourself up for me?” 

He watched Zach’s face turn a light shade of red. “Yea. After dinner.”

“Mmmm, good boy.” He sealed their lips together, kissing him firmly.

Zach dragged in a deep breath as Frankie leaned over to grab his bottle of lube. He focused on removing both their underwear, spending extra time running his hands down Frankie’s thighs.

Once he finally had one of Frankie’s fingers inside him, Zach sighed, closing his eyes and pushing back against it. Frankie peppered kisses along Zach’s neck and up to his ear, scraping his teeth against his earlobe while rubbing his second finger along Zach’s rim.

“Please,” Zach breathed. He moaned as Frankie slowly pushed his second finger inside him and clung tightly to Frankie. “ _Fuck._ ”

Frankie smiled at him and brushed their noses together, making Zach break out in giggles. “I love you.” His fingers pushed in deeper and he spread them out, stretching Zach’s hole.

He bit his lip, trying to hold off the loud noises he could almost feel crawling up his throat. “I love you too. Shit, come on, Frankie, you’re killing me.”

Frankie kissed him lightly. “Mmm, one more. Then I’m gonna fuck you.”

“Finally,” he sassed. Frankie grinned and slid a third finger in him. Zach swore, arching into him and whining as Frankie’s fingers pushed in and out of him. Frankie teased his fingers against Zach’s prostate. Zach bit his lip hard, feeling like his whole body was on fire. “ _Frankie_. Please, just fuck me. I can’t take it anymore.”

He thrust his fingers in and out a few more times, and then they were gone, and Zach mouthed at Frankie’s neck as he tore open a condom and put it on. He bit down on Frankie’s shoulder and pressed a kiss against the spot right after. Frankie giggled and brought their mouths back together, kissing him eagerly. He grabbed the lube and coated himself in it and lined up against Zach’s ass.

Frankie nuzzled into Zach’s chest as he slowly pushed inside him. He ran a soothing hand along Zach’s side and kissed his cheek, noting Zach’s small wince the further he slid inside him. He let Zach adjust and kissed him softly. “I love you,” he mumbled, kissing him again. “So much. I’m so glad you’re here.”

Zach shifted beneath him, moving one of his legs to hitch around Frankie’s waist to alleviate the stinging feeling of his ass being stretched. “Me too.” He pulled Frankie closer, encouraging him to start moving again. “I’m good, I’m good, just fuck me.”

“Always so eager,” Frankie said, pulling out a little and then thrusting back into him. Zach moaned, digging his fingers into Frankie’s hips.

Zach didn’t respond, instead choosing to cling to Frankie and roll his hips back against his. He didn’t really care about talking once they got into it. He just focused on how Frankie felt inside him, the way Frankie’s lips dragged along his skin, and how his hands rubbed into Zach’s legs. It was overwhelming the way Frankie would fuck into him and make Zach feel everything he didn’t know he could feel. He couldn’t stop moaning and swearing as Frankie hit his prostate.

Frankie was usually quieter when he topped, but it had been a month since they’d last been together, and it was their first time back together since they’d gotten in their fight, so he couldn’t stop the sounds coming out of his mouth. Every time Zach clenched around him or dug his nails into his skin a little tighter, Frankie moaned and ran his hands along Zach’s body. He felt sweat prickling at his skin as he picked up the pace, thrusting into Zach harder the louder he got. He knew Ariana could probably hear them at this point, since her room was the closest to his, but he didn’t want to make Zach quiet down, and he didn’t want to stop, so he just kept going as Zach continued to push his hips up against Frankie’s.

Zach was already leaking against his stomach by the time Frankie reached between them to take his cock in his hands, and he couldn’t stop the whine that was dragged out of his mouth. “Fuck. Frankie,” he moaned. Frankie nodded, leaning down to brush their lips together as he jerked him off.

“I know. C’mon. Come for me.” He kept pushing into Zach, jabbing against his prostate as he squeezed his hand along his length. “You feel so good, baby.”

Zach bit out another moan, and then he was coming fast, exploding across his stomach and Frankie’s hand as the heat flowed through his body. Frankie thrust into him a few more times, and then he came with a moan buried in Zach’s neck. Zach ran his fingers through Frankie’s hair, tugging slightly in the way he knew Frankie liked. Frankie stayed like that momentarily, and then leaned up to kiss Zach lazily. Zach giggled, his arms wrapping around Frankie’s waist.

“That was perfect,” Frankie mumbled, stealing another kiss before getting off Zach and pulling out to take the condom off and throw it away. 

“My ass is gonna be sore tomorrow,” Zach laughed. Frankie winked at him as he disappeared to grab a washcloth from his bathroom. 

He returned to Zach’s side, wiping him off with a teasing smile. “Good. I want you to feel it.”

He tossed the washcloth in his hamper and climbed beneath the covers with Zach, who immediately cuddled up to him, resting his head on Frankie’s shoulder. Frankie hummed happily and stroked his hand along Zach’s back and into his hair in silence.

Zach trailed his fingers up and down Frankie’s arm, nuzzling his face sleepily into Frankie’s neck and closing his eyes. “I love you, Frankie.”

Frankie smiled, pressing a kiss into Zach’s hair. “I love you too, my darling. Merry Christmas.”

He giggled. “Pretty great way to spend my first Christmas.” He leaned up, silently asking Frankie for a kiss. His boyfriend kissed him slowly, a smile tugging at the edges of his lips. When they pulled away, Zach rested his forehead against Frankie’s temple, giving him a smile. “Merry Christmas, babe.”

**Author's Note:**

> I appreciate any and all comments/kudos/critique you are willing to give me. Thanks for taking the time to read this! I hope to have the next part up in a couple days.
> 
> If you want to chat, you can find me on tumblr at [ be-your-own-anchor5](http://www.be-your-own-anchor5.tumblr.com)


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